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$60M will help 4 Detroit agencies test Head Start program

Four Detroit agencies have been awarded $60 million over the next five years to pilot a Head Start Birth to Five program.

Starfish Family Services Inc. will distribute the federal grant through its programs and also programs run by Development Centers Inc., Focus: HOPE and Southwest Solutions Inc.

Detroit was one of five cities to receive the grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which funds Head Start programs. The money will provide Detroit children access to early childhood services and family support programs.

“The idea behind the collaborative is to leverage collective experience and the different services we have to offer,” said Ann Kalass, CEO of Starfish, an Inkster-based nonprofit that concentrates on early childhood development.

Where Early Head Start serves pregnant women and families with children up to age 3 and Head Start focuses on 3- to 5-year-olds, the Birth to Five program offers a continuum of services, as the name suggests.

“Which is good for families, and children,” Kalass said.

Across the country, pre-school programs are receiving significantly more funding than programs for infants and toddlers, Kalass said. Because of this imbalance, the federal government asked child services providers to come up with innovative, high-impact programs. Birth to Five is part of that.

Each of the agencies will provide its own services through the grant, coordinated by Kalass and Starfish. The grant will serve nearly 1,000 Detroit children in programs administered by the four programs each year, with a $15 million annual budget. Kalass said the agencies will have to match 25 percent of the grant, raising an extra $3 million each year for the program.

“The spirit of this needs to be bigger than us,” Kalass said. “That’s the tone we’re trying to convey here. This is an exciting time to be a young child in Detroit.”

This month, the Detroit Public Schools failed to complete its paperwork to be included in the Head Start programs, resulting in the loss of about 900 classroom seats. Kalass said she doesn’t think this Birth to Five program is taking over any of the DPS slots, just reshaping the landscape.